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With yesterday’s ouster of Chief Executive Chuck Prince, Citigroup now finds itself in the same boat as rival Merrill Lynch: hobbling along without a permanent captain at the helm.

Like Merrill, Citigroup yesterday elevated an elder statesman – in its case Robert Rubin, 69, a former Treasury secretary and ex-head of Goldman Sachs – to be chairman while the board looks for a successor.

In the wake of Prince’s resignation, the board appointed Sir Win Bischoff, the head of Citigroup Europe, to be interim chief executive. Bischoff has won plaudits from investors and management for managing the client base of London-based Schroders Plc.

The moves, which were reported last night, are likely to be met with skepticism by investors who were looking for a permanent successor – just as they were hoping that Merrill would have someone to fill Stan O’Neal’s shoes.

While one of the most respected names on Wall Street, Rubin, chairman of Citi’s executive committee, has had no day-to-day operational control of the financial giant and has said he does not want to become its CEO.

“It clearly signals that the board hasn’t found anyone to lead the company yet, and obviously the patch job that they did at Merrill didn’t do much to reassure the markets,” said one veteran Wall Streeter.

Merrill last week named Alberto Cribiore interim chairman and began its search for a successor.

Prince’s ouster will likely provide a short-term pop to Citigroup shares. But unless the world’s largest bank acts quickly, investors will likely remain skittish over the long term, analysts said.

Insiders at Citi are quietly pushing for investment banking chief Vikram Pandit to take the top job. Pandit – a former Morgan Stanley honcho who has been at the bank for less than year – is seen as a hands-on exec who is highly skilled at managing risk – something that Citi is in desperate need of after experiencing billions of dollars in credit costs and write-downs of mortgage-related debt gone bad.

Dow Jones reported late yesterday that board members were pondering between $7 billion to $8 billion in charges resulting from rating-agency downgrades of collateralized debt obligations.

Citi actually reached out to a few CEO candidates over the summer, several sources said, but decided against removing Prince.